Posted!

A link has been posted to your Facebook feed.

Buy Photo

The Championship NHRA Top Eliminator Club is a new edition at Lucas Oil Raceway in Brownsburg Ind. on Wednesday, Aug. 29, 2018. Significant renovations will be coming to Lucas Oil Raceway after the NHRA received a $1 million grant from the state of Indiana through the Motorsports Improvement Fund. Michelle Pemberton/IndyStar

The Championship NHRA Top Eliminator Club is a new edition at Lucas Oil Raceway in Brownsburg Ind. on Wednesday, Aug. 29, 2018. Significant renovations will be coming to Lucas Oil Raceway after the NHRA received a $1 million grant from the state of Indiana through the Motorsports Improvement Fund. Michelle Pemberton/IndyStar

The media center at Lucas Oil Raceway in Brownsburg Ind. on Wednesday, Aug. 29, 2018. In the future the media center will be razed and rebuilt after the NHRA received a $1 million grant from the state of Indiana through the Motorsports Improvement Fund. Michelle Pemberton/IndyStar

The oval track at at Lucas Oil Raceway in Brownsburg Ind. on Wednesday, Aug. 29, 2018. Big renovations will be coming to Lucas Oil Raceway after the NHRA received a $1 million grant from the state of Indiana through the Motorsports Improvement Fund. Michelle Pemberton/IndyStar

The oval track at Lucas Oil Raceway in Brownsburg Ind. on Wednesday, Aug. 29, 2018. Big renovations will be coming to Lucas Oil Raceway after the NHRA received a $1 million grant from the state of Indiana through the Motorsports Improvement Fund. Michelle Pemberton/IndyStar

The oval track at Lucas Oil Raceway in Brownsburg Ind. on Wednesday, Aug. 29, 2018. Big renovations will be coming to Lucas Oil Raceway after the NHRA received a $1 million grant from the state of Indiana through the Motorsports Improvement Fund. Michelle Pemberton/IndyStar

The street course at Lucas Oil Raceway in Brownsburg Ind. on Wednesday, Aug. 29, 2018. Big renovations will be coming to Lucas Oil Raceway after the NHRA received a $1 million grant from the state of Indiana through the Motorsports Improvement Fund. Michelle Pemberton/IndyStar

The front gate at Lucas Oil Raceway in Brownsburg Ind. on Wednesday, Aug. 29, 2018. Big renovations will be coming to Lucas Oil Raceway after the NHRA received a $1 million grant from the state of Indiana through the Motorsports Improvement Fund. Michelle Pemberton/IndyStar

The Championship NHRA Top Eliminator Club is a new edition at Lucas Oil Raceway in Brownsburg Ind. on Wednesday, Aug. 29, 2018. Significant renovations will be coming to Lucas Oil Raceway after the NHRA received a $1 million grant from the state of Indiana through the Motorsports Improvement Fund. Michelle Pemberton/IndyStar

The Championship NHRA Top Eliminator Club is a new edition at Lucas Oil Raceway in Brownsburg Ind. on Wednesday, Aug. 29, 2018. Significant renovations will be coming to Lucas Oil Raceway after the NHRA received a $1 million grant from the state of Indiana through the Motorsports Improvement Fund. Michelle Pemberton/IndyStar

The Championship NHRA Top Eliminator Club is a new edition at Lucas Oil Raceway in Brownsburg Ind. on Wednesday, Aug. 29, 2018. Significant renovations will be coming to Lucas Oil Raceway after the NHRA received a $1 million grant from the state of Indiana through the Motorsports Improvement Fund. Michelle Pemberton/IndyStar

The street course at Lucas Oil Raceway in Brownsburg Ind. on Wednesday, Aug. 29, 2018. Big renovations will be coming to Lucas Oil Raceway after the NHRA received a $1 million grant from the state of Indiana through the Motorsports Improvement Fund. Michelle Pemberton/IndyStar

Interested in this topic? You may also want to view these photo galleries:

The front gate at Lucas Oil Raceway in Brownsburg Ind. on Wednesday, Aug. 29, 2018. Big renovations will be coming to Lucas Oil Raceway after the NHRA received a $1 million grant from the state of Indiana through the Motorsports Improvement Fund.(Photo: Michelle Pemberton/IndyStar)Buy Photo

Lucas Oil Raceway is in the midst of a multimillion-dollar renovation aimed at turning the motorsports park into a multi-purpose facility that can be used year-round.

The 58-year-old track in Brownsburg is home to a lot of history. It's where Mario Andretti scored his first career champ car win in the first-ever road course race for American open-wheel cars in 1965. And two-time Indianapolis 500 winner Rodger Ward was one of nearly 20 people to put $5,000 toward building the facility in 1958.

The dragstrip is home to the prestigious U.S. Nationals, NHRA’s biggest race. There is also a 0.686-mile oval that once hosted NASCAR Xfinity, Truck Series and USAC races. The 2.5-mile road course hasn’t been used in 10 years.

The property owned and operated by NHRA was used 159 days last year.

“For us, it’s a matter of it’s a (nearly) 60-year-old property, and what’s the future of it?” said Kasey Coler, the track general manager. “How do we expand the offerings? How do we not just be a Friday, Saturday, Sunday type of facility? We have this land, we have these facilities. It’s an aging facility, so it needs a lot of TLC.”

Coler said NHRA hopes to bring in more manufacturers that want to do R&D testing, as well as host more conventions. He also said there’s enough green space that it could host high school sports practices or even cross-country competitions.

About a year ago, the facility purchased nearly 75 acres, and the plan is to use the new land to expand current facilities and racetracks.

An exact cost of the renovations was not given, but Coler said it is in the eight-figure range. To help with the costs, NHRA, through the town of Brownsburg, applied and was approved for a $1 million state grant.

According to the grant, which came from the Indiana Economic Development Corporation’s Motorsports Improvement Fund, the $1 million was used to help build a pavilion for hospitality during race weekends and which could be opened up for for non-motorsports use.

"No such location currently exists in the town of Brownsburg," the grant agreement said.

The grant agreement states that the pavilion, which is near the starting line of the dragstrip, cost more than $1.9 million, meaning that the grant from the state covered just over half of the cost.

“Because of the dreams we have, because of where it was a number of years ago, (the $1 million grant) was very critical to our business, but you can use that very quickly on a property,” Coler said. “We were very fortunate to be able to invest that in the property and continue to improve what we’re able to do.”

The $1 million from the Motorsports Improvement Fund was the final grant the state gave out, the IEDC said. The fund was set up to help grow the motorsports industry in Indiana, and all $5 million has been allocated across the state.

Now that the pavilion is built, the racetrack is in phase one of renovations, which focuses on the dragstrip. Coler said the dragstrip is first on the list because that is what the facility is known for and is the biggest draw. There is no set end date for the renovations.

Buy Photo

The media center at Lucas Oil Raceway in Brownsburg Ind. on Wednesday, Aug. 29, 2018. In the future the media center will be razed and rebuilt after the NHRA received a $1 million grant from the state of Indiana through the Motorsports Improvement Fund.(Photo: Michelle Pemberton/IndyStar)

Dragstrip (Phase one)

Within the next few years, fans can expect to see visible changes to the dragstrip. Coler said Park Tower, the three-story building at the beginning of the drag strip, will be replaced in the next two years.

He said a new tower would feature hospitality rooms, race control, a media center and classrooms where NHRA can train staff from any of the 120 tracks under its banner.

“We’ve looked at everything from how do you keep the basic framework of this place, strip it down and build it back up, to building a whole new type of building there,” Coler said.

Coler added that the dragstrip would be resurfaced in the near future, another large investment.

“This happens to hold the world’s biggest drag race in the U.S. Nationals, so we recognize that we have to make investment on that,” Coler said.

The biggest update that can be seen at Lucas Oil Raceway this weekend during the Nationals is the pavilion, which will be used as a hospitality destination called the Top Eliminator Club.

Buy Photo

The oval track at Lucas Oil Raceway in Brownsburg Ind. on Wednesday, Aug. 29, 2018. Big renovations will be coming to Lucas Oil Raceway after the NHRA received a $1 million grant from the state of Indiana through the Motorsports Improvement Fund.(Photo: Michelle Pemberton/IndyStar)

Oval (Phase two)

The short track at Lucas Oil Raceway that features 12 degrees of banking most notably hosts “Carb Night Classic,” the USAC race run on the Friday night of Indianapolis 500 weekend.

The oval also hosts the ARCA Racing Series and another USAC race the weekend of the Brickyard 400, but since NASCAR left the facility after 2011, the number of oval races has dwindled to about 10.

Coler said phase two of the renovation includes improving the oval track so it can host more stock car races. He said the goal is for the oval to host up to 30 races a year. To get to that point, the track plans to improve the racing surface, fencing, lighting and seating.

Recently, Dale Earnhardt Jr. weighed in on a Twitter poll asking fans what short track they would like to see NASCAR return to. Earnhardt Jr. said Lucas Oil Raceway, and Coler said he echoes that sentiment. The goal, he said, is to one day bring NASCAR back to Lucas Oil Raceway, as that is one of the questions he gets the most.

“I think it’s no secret that we’d like to see other forms of stock car racing, be it different forms of NASCAR racing that come back out here,” Coler said. “That’s long term what we’d like to see.”

Buy Photo

The street course at Lucas Oil Raceway in Brownsburg Ind. on Wednesday, Aug. 29, 2018. Big renovations will be coming to Lucas Oil Raceway after the NHRA received a $1 million grant from the state of Indiana through the Motorsports Improvement Fund.(Photo: Michelle Pemberton/IndyStar)

Road Course (Phase three)

The 15-turn, 2.5-mile road course at the facility hasn’t been used for racing in a decade. It's now regularly used by people just driving through the 300-acre facility.

In recent years, the road course most notably held Sports Car Club of America events.

Coler said a redesign of the road course is on the table, because the current layout uses the drag strip. He said they want to make all the tracks separate so that they could, in theory, be used at the same time.

Nonetheless, Coler said the road course is a big project that would take a lot of work, a lot of ideas and a lot of time. He calls it a dream.

“Long term, the dream is to get the road course back up and running,” he said. “The road course has a lot of history, and it hasn’t been in utilization for the past 10 years. For us, in our dream world, we have a road course going on at the same time that we might have testing or other events going on at the dragstrip.”